Prius C in the snow?

Yike!

 

All I got:

 

These Winter scenes are so beautiful .........................from here

 

question is...if you should go out when mother nature's dropping 8+ inches, how well do your winter tires/clearance do? or do you wait out the storm?

 

Alright so I've had my Nokian R2 snow tires out on the road for a few snowy trips, and based on what others have said about these tires, and coming from my stock all seasons, here are my impressions.

My overall impression is that they perform a little better than all seasons, but I feel that you still need to utilize 100% of your normal winter/snow travel skills. These tires do not, at all, make you invincible. But they will get you out of stuck situations that all season tires could not. I think they say snow tires give you 20%-25% performance improvement over all seasons, and that seemed to be the case based on my latest trip. I was particularly confident in making accommodations for other drivers on the road, but I was expecting more grip in deep slush. I am still nervous about going faster than 20 mph in deep slush, but I feel comfortable going up to about 30 mph in thin slush.

Everyone on the road was slipping on the slush in this latest winter storm. No one was taking any chances.

• Driving on hard packed snow-and-ice: Great, comparable to my all seasons, but the Nokian R2 snow tires seem to have much better grip, turning, and braking than my all seasons.
• Soft snow, traveled over: Great, better than my all seasons. Turning and braking are noticeably better than my all seasons.
• Soft snow, not packed: The tires would slip if given gas. Turning was a bit shaky, and braking would skip a little... performance was slightly better than my all seasons.
• Black ice: Not sure, I haven't tested this much.
• General highway travel: The tires seem to handle just as well as all seasons.

But here is where the real difference comes in...
Sandy slush, the kind that you can't even walk in without slipping:

I was expecting absolute grip from the Nokian R2 snow tires even in those conditions. This was not the case. The tires frequently slipped and spun, and the car slid very easily on turns. Traction control kicked in nearly every time.
However, if I had my all seasons, I probably would have been *stuck* in the slush at five different intersections in today's furious snowstorm.
The Nokian R2 snow tires *eventually* got me out of every stuck situation, and even got me up a totally slush-covered hill, but I still had to crawl my way up to about 10-15 mph. Whereas with my all seasons, I would be taking a bigger risk.

I should probably mention that for these tests, I had tire pressures of 45.5 psi in the front and 43.0 psi in the rear. Question: Do you think those numbers are too high? Should I lower my tire pressure by like 5 psi, would that help?

 

I don't have a Prius c, but I do run Nokian Hakkapeliitta Rs (and drove the car to rally school in NH in January). IIRC, lowering the tire pressure will cause them to float over the snow, which is not quite what you want. Even with snow tires (even with AWD) you're never going to really get absolute grip. I'm actually kind of surprised how you report not having much more grip though - you sure they got mounted the the right direction?

 

With snow like that, I would think you would have your C for summer and drive a 4WD or 4X4 in the winter months

 

With Bridgestone WS80 on 175/65/15 on all four wheels, I find the drive to be quite safe and secured as compared to my leaky 2007 Subaru Impreza(sans traction and stability control.) Was driving round trip from Vancouver Canada to Harrison Hot Springs in the snowy winter of Jan 2015. No drama whatsoever and the traction control warning light rarely blinked.

 

With lower pressure you would get higher contact patch, this means more grip on hard pack snow or ice (more sipes working for you). If you would have studded tires it's better to have narrow tire to get down to that hard surface in order for them to bite, this is not the case with normal winter tires.

But wider (or under inflated) tire is not so good under aquaplaning conditions, you can get that a lot when snow is melting but the water is not draining of the road because of half melted snow - but this high speed problem, not a traction problem at 0 mph.

Edit: Continental agrees with me::Wide tires

 

I am surprised as well. I felt that traction control kicked on with every slush encounter, like 4-inch-deep soft, lumpy slush. I'm just going through another thread
Winter tires do you over inflate | PriusChat

It seems that with soft snow and slush, a narrower (higher-pressure) tire would be better, and that's what I had. The label inside my driver-side door says I should have 35 psi in the front, 33 psi in the rear. That seems low. So, what is everyone else's experience with navigating slush and fresh snow with your winter tires? And what tire pressure should I use, like, 33 psi, 38 psi, 45 psi...?

I thought studs helped for packed, solid ice, not slush. I'm not sure, would studded tires have been better?

 

@Skylis Yes, snow tires are an incremental increase in traction, not a panacea. If the snow tires were struggling, you would have been in worse shape with all seasons. Look at snow tires as one factor, along with slowing down, increasing following distance and caution, and even just staying home, for the first day after a big blow.

This is all vicarious advice btw: here we've had more or less ZERO snow sticking, so far this "winter", lol.

 

I adjusted my headlights down a little. It's pretty easy to do. I parked about 20 feet in front of my garage, put a line of tape on each side where the light line is, and adjusted them down until I was happy.

 

I've got 205's on my C-4 with the fancy wheels. The snow tires work great, and in fact, they have precisely the number of revolutions per mile to make the speedo spot-on.

 

So I tested the Nokian R2s on a parking lot covered in a layer of black ice, as in, "OMG I'm sliding help me" black ice:





Traction control kicked in a lot. The Nokian R2s seemed to *cut* into the ice; you can see my tracks. When I tested up to 20 mph and then a fast turn with the gas pedal pushed halfway, the tail of the car slid maybe 20 degrees, but I could spin the wheel quickly to recover even with the pedal still pushed. Medium braking was fast but still needed traction control; otherwise I would have slid more.

Meanwhile, I watched someone else pull into a parking space (their tires had "M+S"), and their car skidded forward into the bank. Oops! I also watched someone else spin just readjusting their parking space, and I swear I thought they looked like summer tires...

 

Thank you all for the insight on the Prius C in Snow. I live in Maine and I will be buying snow tires for next winter. I've owned Subaru's for over 10 years and this little hybrid, which I absolutely love, is going to be my main ride - snow or not. Yes, great mpg and snow driving capability. My old '05 Subaru Outback was getting 18-23mpg. Such a marked improvement with 50 - 63mpg so far!

 

So I've tested the Nokian R2s, starting from new, then switched back to the stock all seasons (GY Assurance) with 12,000 miles on them and tested those again in snow.

I observed there to be not much difference. Both the Nokian R2s and the GY Assurance slip in the snow and ice. In real bad weather, traction control kicked in almost every time I hit the gas or brakes, regardless of which set of tires I used. On packed snow/ice, all seasons worked fine and so did the snow tires. As advertised, the snow tires do give 20%-25% better traction, and I did observe that, but it was under-impressive especially for the reputation that people keep giving the Nokian R2s.

 

Update: December 17, 2016: I tested the Hakkapeliitta R2 tires with traction control turned off... yes I am aware of the risks, don't lecture me.

Around a slush/loose-snow intersection that I have entered for the past 9 years. About 2 inches fell already, and the turn angle is 120 degrees where I did the test, starting from 0 mph.
As I began the turn and hit the gas (up to 40 hp), with the wheel turned, the car struggled to turn (felt like it was going straight for a half second)... as I kept the wheel turned, the Hakkapeliitta R2 tires self-corrected while still driving on the slush, with a tiny bit of sliding, and eventually the car turned to the correct angle. The turn ended up being just wider and slower than if the road was pavement. Anyway, once the turn was complete, I could straighten the car easily. I could hit the gas much harder and while the tires would still slip (and engine up to 3200 rpm), I could still straighten the car with some control. This was fun.

If I was to hit the gas hard mid-turn to go faster, then the R2 tires would spin more and the turn would not finish any sooner, plus I would have to correct more to straighten the car at the end of the turn.

The whole test felt a lot like being in this video. Except he floored it... and his maintenance mode is different.

So, I was not aware of just how ultra sensitive the traction control is on the hybrid as traction control kicks in at the slightest correctable slip, and the R2 tires do slip. But they also persevere while they slip, which I could not say about my all seasons.

(Update on December 21: Just tested on solid slick glass-smooth ice, the kind that you need crampons to walk on without slipping. Bad tire performance, little better than all seasons. That's the limit of the tire.)

 

All good info for a new owner, just traded my 2015 silverado crew cab for a 2016 prius c, actually hated driving that truck in the snow, always had better feelings with front wheel drive. Maybe I am weird but it's how I learned to drive.

 

I can't say much for snow but last Friday we had a freezing fog/drizzle and needless to say I don't listen to weather. Prius C handled it great I actually didn't know anyone had issues getting around till I got home.

 

I agree. I learned to drive in a fwd car and I never owned an 4wd until last year. Still prefer my C over any rear drive 4wd any day.